Arrest warrant for anti-Chavez TV boss...

Yet another opponent out of the way...

Venezuela issued an arrest warrant and raided the home of the president of an opposition TV news station on Friday, as the government kept up pressure on prominent critics of President Hugo Chavez.

Attorney General Luisa Ortega said station chief Guillermo Zuloaga was wanted for "usury" after he was accused of illegally storing new vehicles for speculative purposes in 2009, charges he says are politically motivated.

The network, Globovision, ran images of police looking for Zuloaga in his house. He was not home and was not arrested.

"It is an order to apprehend him. Although they do not have the right to enter the house, we have no objection to them doing so," said his lawyer, Perla Jaimes. Zuloaga's son was also named in the warrant.

Zuloaga was detained for a few hours in March after criticizing Chavez's government at a media executives' conference in Aruba. The attorney general said then he was being investigated for possible crimes of giving false information and offending the president.